ETSI is organizing, with the support of the European Union (EU), the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), the Critical Communications Association (TCCA) and the Union Internationale des Chemins de fer (UIC), the 5th FRMCS (Future Railway Mobile Communication System) Plugtests event, which will be hosted by the UIC in Paris, France from 27 to 31 October 2025. 

What are the objectives and scope of the 5th FRMCS Plugtests event?

Interoperability and the harmonisation of mission-critical services are key challenges in successfully deploying and operating mobile broadband communication systems across various sectors, particularly in railways.

The FRMCS Plugtests events aim to validate the understanding of FRMCS standards and the interoperability of diverse implementations through a range of test scenarios based on the 3GPP Mission Critical Services framework, explicitly focusing on railway-specific features.

This event provides a collaborative environment where vendors, operators, and railway organizations can test their solutions, ensuring that equipment from different manufacturers works together seamlessly. Achieving interoperability and standard harmonisation is essential for the effective rollout of FRMCS, as reliable communication is critical for safe, efficient, and well-coordinated railway operations.

This FRMCS Plugtests event is part of the MCX Plugtests programme.

The tests will be based on 3GPP, ETSI and IETF standards, and are designed for the following equipment:

  • FRMCS capable MCX Application Servers (MCPTT, MCDATA, MCVIDEO)
  • FRMCS capable MCX Clients (MCPTT, MCDATA, MCVIDEO)
  • UEs and Cab Radios
  • eMBMS Components
  • IMS / SIP Cores
  • Consoles and Control Rooms
  • Test Equipments
  • RAN Equipment (gNB)
  • Packet cores (5GC)

The purpose and scope of the FRMCS Plugtests event are to test independently and jointly all components of the Mobile communication System for Railways. Railway-related test cases are available in ETSI TS 103 564. Additional railway-oriented test cases focusing on GSM-R Interworking and Migration and Interconnection for MC services will also be developed for this Plugtests.

Who can participate?

  • Vendors which develop and produce above mentioned equipment.
  • All vendors must actively participate in the testing railway features.
  • Products have to support Rail features like functional aliases, multi-talker, etc.
  • Observers, which can be government organisations, mobile network operators, railways operators, users, agencies or regulators. Observers are welcome to help define the scope (i.e.functionality to be tested) for this event and to evaluate the tests statistics in the TRT (Test Reporting Tool). 
  • New Vendors and Observers have to sign the Rules of Engagement and Non-Disclosure Agreement of the MCX Plugtests Programme to participate.

What are the advantages of attending the FRMCS Plugtests event?

  • To assess the level of interoperability of your implementations
  • To validate your understanding of the standards
  • To test with (many) other real implementations and demonstrate end-to-end interoperability
  • To debug your implementation: early bug fixing, saving time and costs
  • To promote the technology and the ecosystem

The Plugtests observer program

The focus of the observer program will be to examine and discuss the progress of deployment and the challenges of FRMCS. The observer program will be held onsite and will provide a platform to the various stake holders in railways to discuss the progress of FRMCS. 

The observer program will also include interoperability demos from interested vendors, which will show how their solutions meet the FRMCS Plugtests test cases and observer scenario use cases.

This Plugtests event is organized by ETSI and is co-funded by the European Union (EU) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).

UIC

16, rue Jean Rey

75015 Paris

FRANCE

REGISTRATION

All participants have to register to this event even if they participated in previous events part of the MCX Plugtests Programme.

All participants are expected to register individually. Each first person from an organisation to register for the event is de facto the official contact for technical and logistics matters.

After registration, all participants joining the FRMCS Plugtests will be invited to the preparation conference calls and will be subscribed to the Plugtests mailing list dedicated to the FRMCS Plugtests event. 

The registration deadline is 29 June 2025. Participating companies are invited to contact the ETSI Plugtests team at plugtests@etsi.org in order to add colleagues within ther registered teams after that date.

The event is free of charge.

ROE AND NDA

By registering for the FRMCS Plugtests event, new participating organisations are joining the MCX Plugtests Programme and are asked to sign the Rules of Engagement (RoE) and Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which they will receive upon registration.

These RoE and NDA cover the series of remote and face-to-face Plugtests events which are held as part of the MCX Plugtests Programme.

Companies which previously signed the RoE and NDA of the MCX Plugtests Programme when registering to one of the past MCX Plugtests events do not need to sign the RoE and NDA again. Only new organisations joining the Programme will receive the RoE and NDA for signature.

Upon signature of the RoE and NDA sent to the official contact, the new participants will receive their credentials for the FRMCS Plugtests WIKI. Participants who joined the MCX Plugtests Programme and had already signed the RoE and NDA, will keep their credentials that they can reuse for the FRMCS Plugtests WIKI.

Participants will not be allowed to participate in the event, if the RoE and NDA of the Programme has not been signed by a representative of their company.

The deadline to return the signed RoE and NDAs to ETSI is 06 July 2025.

 Follow @ETSI_Standards Participate with #FRMCSPlugtests

Join our open information call and hear more about the 5th FRMCS Plugtests. No need to have registered for the event to attend this call.

5th FRMCS Plugtests - Open Information Conference Call
Jun 11, 2025, 2:00 – 3:00 PM (Europe/Brussels)

Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
https://meet.goto.com/335561445

You can also dial in using your phone.
Access Code: 335-561-445
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France: +33 430 001 233

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